File No. 763.72119/1587
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 14, 2 a.m.]
3595. Following joint telegram from Allied Ministers dated Jassy, April 12:
The union of Bessarabia and Rumania was proclaimed unanimously except for five votes yesterday [sic] at Kishinev by the Bessarabian assembly with the reservation, however, of a wide autonomy. It appears from a recent speech of Count Czernin that the Central powers have declared that they place no opposition on this union. We confirm that in order to prevent them from making capital of this event, it should be sympathetically welcomed, all the more so as this application of the principle of nationalities sanctioned by the vote of a free assembly seems entirely in agreement with the program of the Entente. The event appears in conformity with our interests. Being too weak to guarantee her independence by her own means, and cut off from greater Russia, Bessarabia has no other alternative than to unite with Rumania or the Ukraine which has voluntarily become an Austrian-German colony.